Tom Foss is a mysterious character whose agenda is up for grabs for most Season 1, until we learn that he is Kyle's guardian and protector and trusted friend of Adam Baylin. Foss is outwardly cold and strict, but he cares for Kyle very much and risks his life to protect him. Foss was trained in the military, and his tactics are often brutal.
Biography[]
Season 1[]
When Nicole is taking Kyle to her office to test him, there is a dangerous-looking man in a dirty old pick-up stopped outside the house. Only Kyle notices him, and stares at him in thought, as if he might know him. When Nicole leaves the Juvenile Detention Home after being told that Kyle's files are missing and there is no other place that will take him, the same man is waiting in the truck, with the files.
When Kyle wanders out of the house one night, the same man is again waiting outside in his truck and follows him, until a dog starts barking. After Nicole learns from the detective about the skeleton in the woods, and she and her husband Stephen are discussing Kyle's possibly being a witness to a murder, the man is again in the truck in front of the house, listening to them with a special receiver. When Nicole says that the killer would probably have scratches on him, we see marks on the back of his hand.
The man's record file comes up on a computer screen with him in a dark office, his name shown as "FOSS, THOMAS". Another man gives him a form to sign, remarking "Ten years of service to the company, Tom. Sorry to see you go." Tom says "Time to move on." When Dennis Bunker learns that the security card that Tom hands in had William Kern's security clearance, he offers Tom a way for him to keep quiet about it. When Dennis comes to his apartment for the bribe, Tom breaks his neck.
While everyone is leaving for the first day of school, Tom is waiting at the curb in a new car, and enters the house. He has a satchel, and goes upstairs. When Nicole comes home to have a tryst with Stephen, she hears something break while on the phone. Stephen tells her to get out of the house, but when she opens the front door, Foss is there. Stephen rushes in, can't find anyone in the house, but hears something in Kyle's room. He sees Tom and Nicole at a window. Tom explains about someone breaking into the house, and promises to keep a close watch.
Stephen calls the security company and is told "Tom is a new employee here, just started this week. Tom has a very impressive military background. He's a decorated veteran, plus several years in private security patrol. Nothing to worry about." The supervisor tells Tom "They couldn't be in better hands." That night as the family goes to bed, Tom is watching monitors showing each room where he had put cameras.
During the rainstorm that jogs Kyle's memory of a hooded man looking in a window, Tom meets Stephen outside checking the fuse boxes about the power outage. Stephen invites him in to see Kyle's drawing. Tom says he does not recognize it, but will circulate it. From his patrol car he makes a personal phone call to report: "We got a problem. He's starting to remember." Back in his apartment, Tom is watching replays of video of Kyle's room showing Declan coming in the window the previous night. He gets a phone call saying "I'm hoping you have a plan. If his memory is getting clearer, the family's going to become a problem." Staring at an image of Declan, Tom says "I'll take care of it."
Tom goes to the house to report a hit-and-run accident in the neighborhood, knowing it would be Declan. Kyle sees him and says "I know you." Tom says that's because he's on patrol there. Nicole is connecting Kyle's drawing of Prof. Kern with the murder in the woods and Kyle's special abilities which Kern was studying. While she is discussing that with Stephen, Tom is watching on the monitors. He gets another phone call saying "The police are going to start making connections." Tom says "I told you they won't. I got a plan."
Foss fills a syringe with something clear, and checks a pistol. He drives his old pickup to a bad part of town and finds a junkie sitting on a door stoop. He says "Hey buddy, want to make some money?" After assuring him there's no catch, he waves some bills at him and says "Get in, and I'll explain it to you. Come on." Nicole goes to see the detective on the Kern murder case and Kyle's missing person case, and he tells her that the junkie was found dead of a drug overdose, with several items that belonged to Kern, and the gun that was used to kill Kern. He says that he will keep trying to help Kyle, "but we found no link to Professor Kern and, this murder case is closed." While Nicole is talking about it with Kyle, Foss is watching on the monitors.
Kyle has another dream of Kern in the rain looking in the window. Then Kern is aiming at Tom, but they struggle. Foss throws him down, picks up a fallen gun, and kills Kern. Kyle repeats the dream under hypnosis, naming Foss as hurting Kern.
Nicole thinks Tom only represents an authority figure from Kyle's past, but Stephen has him taken off their security route. Tom goes by to see if there was something he'd done to upset them, to tell Nicole that he really admires her, and to offer his help if they ever need it.
When Tom's monitors show Nicole and Stephen talking about the map coordinates that Kyle discovers at UW, he rushes off. As Kyle is climbing a chainlink fence, he is pulled down by a man in a ski mask. They wrestle, but Kyle gets away, only to appear behind the man and pull off the mask. Tom tells him that Kern was not the man he thinks he was. "Everything I did, was to protect you, to keep you safe. You've got to trust me. You've got to stop asking questions. Forget about the past, get on with your life. Because if you don't, you're going to put yourself, you're going to put Nicole, and you're going to put Stephen, Lori and Josh, that whole family in danger. They'll kill you, Kyle. They'll kill all of you. Now get out of here. You remember what I told you. Go! And don't ever come back."
Tom is at his monitors talking on the phone. The voice says "Watch him, but don't get too close. The company will make the connection soon, and they will send someone to trail you." Tom says "I know how they work. I'll be ready." The voice says "Have they been asking any more questions?" Tom say "I told him to keep quiet. So far, he has."
The company does make the connection. Cyrus Reynolds tells Rebecca Thatcher that during his ten years working there, Tom was "quiet, intense," and had helped train him. He explains that when 781227 (as they call Kyle) was ordered terminated, Foss resigned, and both Kern and Bunker were missing. He includes the information that Tom's wife and daughter died in a car accident a few years ago. Rebecca says to follow him, and Cyrus had already said "Oh, I'm sure he's expecting our visit."
Tom is on his security patrol, and Cyrus is in a parked car, reporting that he had found Foss. Tom enters the other door, pulls his gun and says "Come on, man, I thought I taught you better than that." Cyrus says "If you kill me, they'll just send somebody else. We'll keep looking, keep searching, until we find the subject." Foss whispers "He's not a subject." Cyrus says "See? You let your heart get in the way. We're gonna get him." Foss puts the gun closer, cocked, and says "You stay away from him. You understand?" Back at his apartment and back on the phone, Tom says "They're on the trail, they're going to find him. We've got to take him out, fast." The voice says "That plan is already in motion," and tells Tom "They're watching you, don't interfere."
While Tom is out of his apartment, Kyle and Declan get in and see the monitors. When Kyle hears Tom coming, they run out, leaving the monitors on. Tom notices and hunts the apartment, and sees them running down on the street. He runs out after them, only to find Cyrus driving away behind them.
Tom knows they were going to the carnival, but is looking around for Kyle, not Cyrus, who has his gun ready under his coat over his arm. Cyrus comes up behind and says "You taught me well after all." Tom says "You going to shoot me in front of all these people?" Cyrus says "You know how it works, Tommy, shot or two out of nowhere, mass hysteria always provides an escape route," as he leads them to a better shot at Kyle. "You should have terminated him according to instructions." Tom says "Well, it's done now, it's too late. The boy doesn't know anything." Cyrus says "Your mistake could expose the company, everything we've ever worked for could be destroyed." Tom growls "Leave him alone!" and Cyrus hits him over the head with the butt of his pistol. Kyle is saved only by falling in an epileptic seizure.
While demanding that Tom tell him who the Petersons are, Kyle breaks Tom's monitor system. Kyle leaves the house and visits a church. While he is walking through a park, Cyrus is following him by running from tree to tree, but Kyle is suddenly chloroformed from behind another tree. Again in a car in a rainstorm, Kyle sees Tom at the window just like he remembered Kern. As he is waking on the ground, Kyle remembers the whole confrontation between Kern and Foss. Before they can discuss it, Kyle hears something, and Cyrus starts shooting and missing, but does hit Tom. Kyle helps him get to the truck and drives him home, but before leaving, he demands that Tom tell him more.
Back in his apartment with a bloody bandage on his left arm, Tom gets a call and says "It's done. I told him to go with the Petersons, it was the only way to keep the Tragers out of danger, and I was going to send him to somebody that could tell him everything." On the ride with the Petersons, Kyle recalls Tom saying that he can't remember anything before the night in the woods "because there's nothing to remember. Before that night, for all intents and purposes, you didn't exist."
Episode 1x01 - "Pilot"[]
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Episode 1x02 - "Sleepless in Seattle"[]
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Episode 1x03 - "The Lies That Bind"[]
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Episode 1x04 - "Diving In"[]
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Episode 1x05 - "This Is Not a Test"[]
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Episode 1x06 - "Blame It on the Rain"[]
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Episode 1x07 - "Kyle Got Game"[]
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Episode 1x08 - "Memory Serves"[]
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Episode 1x09 - "Overheard"[]
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Episode 1x10 - "Endgame"[]
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Season 2[]
Foss is at the mansion where Kyle had been taken by the Petersons. Adam Baylin explains to Kyle that Foss' real job at Zzyzx was as informant, then security for Kyle, now security for them at the mansion. Foss keeps Kyle on a timer while he speaks to the Tragers by webcam. If his messages last over four minutes, Zzyzx could track the connection. One call does last too long, when Adam has a fall. As Baylin teaches Kyle more about his special abilities, a shot is fired from outside that hits Baylin's heart.
After Baylin's funeral, Foss sneaks into Zzyzx and plants time bombs. Foss discovers project 781228, and sees surveillance monitors showing Kyle walking in the hallways. Foss knocks Kyle out just as he is at the door to 781228's room. Kyle awakes outside, seconds before the bombs explode.
Kyle asks to return to the Tragers. Part of the conditions is that Foss trains Kyle to use his powers. Kyle feels the training is too hard and interferes with his normal life, but Foss wants him to be ready for anything. While arguing about the training, Kyle's distress makes the skylight shatter, and Tom assures him that secrecy from the Tragers is necessary, because that cannot be explained.
Later, Kyle decodes a message left for him by Adam, warning him not to trust Foss. Kyle goes to the warehouse to talk to Foss, but no trace of him or the work they were doing is there.
Tom returns and refuses to tell where he went. He admits threatening Declan to make him back off, but he never attacked Lori. Kyle doesn't believe him and leaves. While in the bombed-out Zzyzx compound on Lori's trip, Kyle has flashbacks of his time in the gestation tank in Zzyzx. Tom was the only one caring about him, and saved his life when he was supposed to be killed. Kyle visits Tom to apologize, and sees that Tom still has the tape player he used to entertain 781227 with music. Kyle sees the photo of Tom's wife and daughter, and asks about them. Kyle understands that Tom was the drunk driver that caused the accident that killed them.
Tom and Kyle figure out that they need the Latnok ring to open Adam's box from Zzyzx, but Tom is outraged when Declan comes to help. Despite their dislike and distrust of each other, Tom and Declan manage to work together to get the ring back from Julian Ballantine at Madacorp. The plan is ruined by Lori, but Kyle does get Julian's ring. While trying to escape, Declan twists his ankle. Tom fights off the security guards so Declan and Kyle can get away, but he is captured.
Emily Hollander prepares Foss as a test subject of the CIR to see if they can get past his resistance, as they intend to do with Kyle. After they do break him, Brian Taylor comes in and teases Tom for helping Julian break Kyle in the CIR. As Brian taunts him for what will happen to Kyle, Tom suddenly frees his arm and is choking Brian, until two Madacorp guards restrain him. Stephen accidently and secretly sees them.
Emily gives Tom everything he needs to escape and contact Kyle, under the guise that she didn't want to work for Madacorp anymore. Tom leaves and calls Kyle, but only to tell him that he has everything he needs to follow the clues, and tells him to destroy the phone so he isn't traced. Tom then tries to watch over the Tragers as Kyle asks him to.
The last we see of Tom in Season 2 is in the hall of the school during the prom. Kyle tells him not to bother. With him not there, Amanda is missing at the end of the night.
Episode 2x01 - "The Prophet"[]
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Episode 2x02 - "The Homecoming"[]
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Episode 2x03 - "The List Is Life"[]
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Episode 2x04 - "Balancing Act"[]
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Episode 2x05 - "Come to Your Senses"[]
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Episode 2x06 - "Does Kyle Dream of Electric Fish?"[]
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Episode 2x07 - "Free to Be You and Me"[]
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Episode 2x08 - "What's the Frequency, Kyle?"[]
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Episode 2x09 - "Ghost in the Machine"[]
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Episode 2x10 - "House of Cards"[]
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Episode 2x11 - "Hands on a Hybrid"[]
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Episode 2x12 - "Lockdown"[]
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Episode 2x13 - "Leap of Faith"[]
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Episode 2x14 - "To C.I.R., with Love"[]
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Episode 2x15 - "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"[]
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Episode 2x16 - "Great Expectations"[]
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Episode 2x17 - "Grounded"[]
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Episode 2x18 - "Between the Rack and a Hard Place"[]
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Episode 2x19 - "The First Cut Is the Deepest"[]
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Episode 2x20 - "Primary Colors"[]
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Episode 2x21 - "Grey Matters"[]
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Episode 2x22 - "Hello..."[]
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Episode 2x23 - "I've Had the Time of My Life"[]
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Season 3[]
Episode 3x09 - "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"[]
We see Tom only briefly in the last season, once giving Brian a plane ticket and a warning to not come back, informing Kyle of Adam Baylin's death, and then having a small part in the plan to trick Cassidy.
Notes[]
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Gallery[]